Biolog adds contract microbial service capabilities through MIDI Labs buyout

10-Jan-2023 - Last updated on 10-Jan-2023 at 17:17 GMT

Biolog has acquired the contract laboratory MIDI Labs to add microbial identification and enumeration services to its offering.

California-based Biolog is a provider of products for phenotypic cell profiling, metabolic characterization, and microbial identification. The Biolog product portfolio includes OmniLog, an automated platform for aerobic identification and phenotypic analysis for microbial and mammalian cells, and MicroStation, a semi-automated platform for microbial identification and community analysis

Buying MIDI Labs moves Biolog into contract services. The acquired company is a Delaware-based provider of microbial identification and confirmatory testing services using sequencing and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry to industries including pharma.

Robert Wicke, CEO of Biolog, explained how the business combination, which will see MIDI Labs use Biolog's OmniLog platform for metabolic phenotypic analysis, will improve the service offering.

“Combining the technologies from Biolog and MIDI will allow us to offer polyphasic analysis to customers doing any type of microbial ID or phenotypic metabolic profiling to enable a direct link between genotype, phenotype, and proteomics,” said Wicke.

Biolog disclosed details of the acquisition alongside news of its takeover of MIDI Labs’ sister company, MIDI. Buying MIDI gives Biolog control of software for the automated analysis of fatty acids.

The buyer is financing the acquisitions through the expansion of its recent series A funding round, led by BroadOak Capital and Research Corporation Technologies. Last year, Biolog disclosed a $10m (€9.5m) financing in a financial regulatory filing.

MIDI Labs and MIDI are the first acquisitions by Biolog since a new leadership team, headed by Wicke, took charge of the company and secured investment in May. Attention will now turn to integrating the acquisitions and making the most of complementary capabilities.

“This is a big win for MIDI and our customers. Together with Biolog, we'll be able to identify tens of thousands of microbiota and add phenotypic services for customers needing a more complete picture of an organism's metabolic function,” said Gary Jackoway, President of MIDI Labs.